Aztecs have to do it on the road now

No. 21 SDSU at Boise State

Site/time: Taco Bell Arena, Boise, Id./7 p.m. PST

TV/radio: 4 San Diego, The Mtn./600-AM, 95.7-FM

Records: SDSU is 22-6, 8-4. BSU is 13-14, 3-9.

Aztecs update: TCU's loss at Wyoming on Tuesday means the Aztecs can finish no lower than third in the Mountain West. This is just the third meeting against the Broncos, once in 1976 and the Feb. 1 game the Aztecs won 58-56 won Thomas Bropleh’s three-pointer rolled out at the buzzer. “I’m sure they’ll talk about that,” SDSU coach Steve Fisher said. The Aztecs are returning closer to full strength after ankle injuries sidelined Jamaal Franklin and Garrett Green 11 days ago at Air Force. Franklin is coming off a career night: 31 points and 16 rebounds against Colorado State. Xavier Thames had been struggling but had all 15 of his points against CSU in the second half. James Rahon also broke out of a slump by making 4 of 8 threes. The only guard still waiting to is Chase Tapley, who is shooting 28.6 percent (12 of 42) in the last four games.

Broncos update: They are 1-10 on the road and 11-4 at home. A lot of that is a function of their youth, with three freshmen starters (Anthony Drmic, Derrick Marks and Joe Hanstad) and four more on the roster. The danger here is their perimeter shooting accuracy, which is substantially better at home. Second-year coach Leon Rice can put a lineup on the floor with five legit three-point shooters. After going 0-7 through the first half of the Mountain West season, the Broncos won three straight before losing at UNLV and at Wyoming last week. They have defeated two of the last three ranked teams to come to Taco Bell Arena – No. 20 BYU in 2007, and No. 21 Utah State in 2009. The third, then-No. 12 UNLV on Jan. 25, went to overtime.

The San Diego State men’s basketball team practiced at Peterson Gym on Tuesday, rode a bus to Gillespie Field in El Cajon and boarded three small charter jets for a late afternoon departure. They took off in the setting sun, banked to the northeast and headed into the great unknown.

Senior Night was Saturday, a festive, emotional occasion as 12,414 in Viejas Arena bid farewell to Tim Shelton, Garrett Green and the rest of a 2011-12 team that so magically exceeded expectations and tantalized the imagination.

But this season largely will be defined by what happens over the next three weeks, on planes and buses and hostile arenas, far from what Coach Steve Fisher likes to call the “friendly confines” of Viejas Arena. The No. 21 Aztecs (22-6, 8-4) close the regular season at Boise State tonight and at TCU on Saturday. Then it’s Las Vegas for the Mountain West tournament and possibly three games in three days. Then Greensboro or Pittsburgh or Omaha or wherever else the NCAA Tournament selection committee sends them the following week.

“I feel like this year we’ve had harder travel than in the last two years,” junior guard Chase Tapley said, “with the big Wyoming trip, the weather, coming in late, stuff like that. Comes with the territory in this league.”